Copyright is a complex beast, often requiring legal advice to understand its intricacies. This 14-chapter text outlines the copyright basics surrounding materials in an academic setting. The reader will come to understand that copyright is not just black and white, but that it contains many grey areas.
The author, Rebecca Butler, has extensive knowledge in the area of copyright in the education sector and has been providing workshops in this field for 17 years. This means that readers should finish the book feeling well–informed on copyright issues that might come their way. Since the book focuses on US law and makes no comparison with laws in other countries, one may well ask whether it is worth reading – the answer is both yes and no:
No because whatever one reads will have to be reviewed in the context of Australian legislation.
Yes because the reader gains a general idea about copyright issues in the education sector, and some general areas such as identifying public domain works, ways to avoid copyright problems and using Creative Commons licences appear to be universal.
The aim of the book is ‘to help clarify copyright in education’. It certainly achieves this for the US education sector by addressing the use of DVDs, streaming video, television, computer software, mobile technologies, music, multimedia, distance learning and more. The book features helpful diagrams for working out what one is allowed to do with different materials in the US education sector.
If you are interested in copyright law in American university libraries, then this is a book you should read.